ISLAMABAD: Journalist Panel has swept the National Press Club (NPC) elections held for the year 2022 by securing all 11 executive posts.
However, opponent panels boycotted the vote count, alleging massive vote fraud and conducting vote count under Police supervision.
The results were announced by the chief election commissioner Asim Qadeer Rana Saturday morning.
Per the results, Anwar Raza of Journalist Panel was elected as President of the NPC by bagging 1,027 votes while his closest rival and former NPC president Shakeel Qarar of Azad Journalist Panel obtained only 611 votes.
The other five candidates could not even cross 160 votes, as the candidate of Matiullah Jan’s Jago panel was at fourth place with 106 votes.
The results of the 15 Governing Body seats are expected to be announced on Sunday morning. More than 1,926 members exercised their right and to prevent any untoward incident, the election commission had requested police presence during polling and at the counting of votes.
Apart from a large number of independent contenders, there were four panels in the contest, but the competition was between the Journalist panel and the alliance of three PFUJs and three former Presidents the Azad Journalist Panel.
The other two panels were “Jago Panel” led by Matiullah Jan and a group “National Journalist Panel”.
After the results, Anwar Raza said that the target for the year was to strengthen the NPC as an institution and carry forward the key agenda of press freedom, civil rights and giving the voice to the voiceless.
The candidates of Journalist Panel got all the three posts of vice-Presidents (VP) Azhar Jatoi (980 votes), Nazir Charan, (839) and Ghazanfar Abbas (825).
For the post of VP, (women) Myra Imran of Journalist Panel got 939 votes beating Irfana Yasir of Azad panel, who got 467 votes.
Khalil Ahmed Raja of the Journalist Panel became Secretary NPC with 823 votes closely followed by Dr Sadia Kamal of Azad Journalist Panel who obtained 771 votes, while Abdul Hameed of National Journalist Panel got 240 votes.
All the three slots of Joint Secretaries (JS) have been won by Journalist Panel, Aslam Lurka with 882 votes, Waqar Abbasi 805 votes and Tallat Farooq 791 votes.
Shakila Jalil from the Journalist Panel retained her seat of JS (women) by securing 949 votes, beating Mahwish Fakhar of Azad panel who got 493 votes.
Nayyar Ali of Journalist Panel has been announced as Finance Secretary with 740 votes, and Usman Khan of Azad Panel got 683 votes.
Several political parties have felicitated the Journalist Panel and the new elected body of the NPC, including the PPP, ANP and the MQM.
